Spotify

Any users? I think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. I use the free version so you get a 30 second advert every 9-12 songs, but apart from that, it' an amazing thing.

For those who don't know what it is, you download it to your desktop and it's a bit like your itunes or windows media player but you don't host the files on your computer so you can't put them on your mp3 player etc. The great thing about it is, if you're like me and listen to most of your music on your computer, you can listen to loads of stuff you don't have, for free. It's a great way to taste albums to see if you like them before you buy them, or if you're too poor, you can listen to music without having to pay.

The best thing is, it's totally legal!

Well, actually, the best thing is that it can even scrobble to your last.fm

There are some gaps - obviously, if like me your favourite band is so old and so obscure that most of their work has now been deleted, you won't find them there, and artists I like who release their stuff on their own independent labels also don't seem to have made it on there.

But there's so much else on there, you're spoilt for choice. And the adverts are less obtrusive and annoying than I was expecting.

Thanks for posting that. Yikes, that's awful! I'm in two minds about whether I should carry on using it now, as it seems it's just another way for record labels to exploit artists.

On the other hand:
(a) Most of my favourite artists now release stuff on their own independent labels and haven't participated in Spotify, so I'm not exploiting the people I love.
(b) I mainly listen to stuff I wouldn't have bought if I hadn't had Spotify or stuff I already own (it's just more convenient than walking over to to the CD rack and getting the CD out of its case), so it's not like I'm getting music I would otherwise have paid for.
(c) I have ended up buying music I heard first on Spotify, so the artists are getting my money in the end (well, what's left over after the record company have taken their cut).
(d) I feel lucky to have a free Spotify account, as they restricted access to free accounts just after I signed up, so I don't really want to throw it away
(e) It sounds like Spotify is on the skids, anyway, so I'll probably only be "exploiting" artists for a little while longer
(f) I can't think of many alternative methods of trying new music, apart from ones that would hurt the artists even more.

I'm not even convincing myself with these reasons, so perhaps I may try listening to we7.com a lot more, in the light of this article.

I don't think it really matters which streaming service you use, Artists are always going to get the raw end of the deal as long as the major record labels control the market.
Spotify probably won't last but i can see the basic concept being refined and used by the record labels at some point.

Anyway legal streaming services are a good thing, as i do buy albums that i wouldn't bother with if i haven't had access to them through something like spotify.

__________________If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

Spotify is great, I use the free version. Although I find it usually doesn't have some of the music I'm interested, but its good for when you fancy a good browse of music.
I have to admit, the adverts so sometimes get right on my nerves
Some of them are just generally very annoying adverts, and I find I don't just get two or three adverts I'll get about five in a row every few songs, its frustrating but hey, shouldn't complain since we're being given free acess to albums

This is so very true. I think using Spotify (open) as a way to find artists and decide whether you like them before buying their music is the fairest method. It seems that Spotify are trying to emphasise this now. Their newer policies, like only being able to stream 10 hours a month and only being able to play each track 5 times, seem designed to encourage a more casual type of listening rather than treating Spotify as a personal playlist. No-one wants to pay for music they don't really want or like but I hope this encourages people to buy the music which they do like. Some people will inevitably just find illegal ways to listen to music for free, instead. I've certainly found myself using Spotify much less frequently since this most recent change.